Creamers and methods of making same

Abstract

Natural Creamers for providing whitening and indulgent texture/mouthfeel of beverage and food products are provided. The creamers have long-term stability, high whitening capacity and a pleasant mouthfeel when added to beverage and food, while being free from artificial additives. In a general embodiment, the present disclosure provides a creamer comprising added sugar, milk fat, milk proteins and optionally natural flavors and free of any artificial additives. Wherein the ratio of milk fat:milk protein is less than 5.3:1; and wherein the Lumisizer instability index of liquid creamer is less than 10.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A process for manufacturing a creamer, the process comprising:
 obtaining a fat including milk fat kept under low agitation or alternative process conditions to avoid foam generation; 
 heating a sugar syrup; 
 preparing a premix solution comprising liquid milk and the sugar syrup in a 50:50 ratio by mass, the liquid milk comprising at least one of skim milk or whole milk; 
 low shear mixing of the premix solution in presence of nonfat dry milk powder to achieve a completed hydration of dry ingredients; 
 adding the fat including the milk fat to the premix solution to form a mixture under low agitation such that no or minimal foam is produced, wherein water in the premix solution is obtained from the liquid milk; 
 homogenizing the mixture at conditions that obtain an emulsion having a particle size ranging from 0.01 to 2 μm (micrometers) with a d50<1 μm and d90<1.5 μm and having no particles above 10 μm; 
 treating the emulsion with ultra-high temperature (UHT) treatment to form the creamer; and 
 filling a container with the creamer aseptically at 0.5-20° C., 
 wherein the creamer is free of added emulsifier and has no phase separation for at least 9 months of storage at 0.5-20° C., the creamer has a mass ratio of milk fat:milk proteins less than 5.3:1 and a Lumisizer instability index less than 10, and the creamer comprises the milk fat in amount of 3.3% to 10.2% by mass, added sugar in amount of 1% to 35% by mass and protein in amount of 1% to 5% by mass. 
 
     
     
       2. The process of  claim 1 , wherein the UHT treatment temperature is at a minimum temperature of 141° C. for about 3 seconds. 
     
     
       3. The process of  claim 1 , wherein the creamer has a mass ratio of added sugar:milk proteins ranging from about 35:1 to about 1:5. 
     
     
       4. The process of  claim 1 , wherein the milk fat is a fat source selected from the group consisting of heavy cream, liquid whole milk, partially defatted liquid milk, whole milk powder, anhydrous milk fat and combinations thereof. 
     
     
       5. The process of  claim 1 , comprising adding to the premix solution an additional ingredient selected from the group consisting of a flavor, a colorant, and combinations thereof. 
     
     
       6. The process of  claim 1 , wherein the premix solution undergoing the low shear mixing comprises the liquid milk and the nonfat dry milk powder in a ratio by mass from 1:1 to 2:1. 
     
     
       7. The process of  claim 1 , wherein the sugar syrup has a temperature of 45° C. to 85° C. when combined with the liquid milk and the nonfat dry milk powder.